It can be WAY lower. When I worked as a freelancer, the best option here was something called "normed-income tax". Basically, for self-employed people, the stat

It can be WAY lower. When I worked as a freelancer, the best option here was something called "normed-income tax". Basically, for self-employed people, the state would offer you the option of doing no paperwork and letting them decide how much you earn - and you just paid that fixed tax. Not sure what formula they used but it was extremely advantageous, they estimated about 1/10th of my actual earnings.